6/18/10

The weather at Lakeville last Sunday was about as good as it gets. Hardly any wind for 4/5 hours, hot but not roasting and even a few thermals.

We were joined by Walter Hicks - visiting from the south - who is getting back into rubber free flight after a period dedicated to control line flying. He asked a lot of questions about tissue, dope, wood, shrinking, rubber and a lot more, and I think we managed to give several different answers to every question. Good to see you Walter - come back again.

Jim flew a variety of Prairie Birds, Mike had some great flights with the new Comet and almost went OOS with his Bostonian. Jerry's Heinkel is nearly under control, Dave Ks Albatross performed predictably, and Phobi's peanuts were delightful until one landed on the road right in front of a passing car. Dave W took most of the photos after the warps on the Mustang proved unfixable. My Gypsy is promising and George's Dayton Wright Racer put in possibly its best flight in 15 years.

6/8/10

Here it comes! Marin Aero Club's 2010 Volksplane cookup is about to begin.

George and Tom suggested the Evans VP-1 Volksplane because the model is simple to build, a well-documented scale subject, and... what's the other reason? It's always good to have three reasons. Oh, I know! George already built one, so he can proceed directly to the next project. But seriously, I'm sure there are many other good reasons to build this model.

The VP-1 model pictured here belongs to Jerry Long. He flies it both indoors and outdoors. The WW1 German markings accurately represent a specific full scale Volksplane whimsically decorated in this way.

Some of us are building Volksplane models from plans prepared by Tom, based on David Aronstein's excellent peanut scale design. Tom has cleaned it up, added templates for all the 'print wood', and provided an option to build the fuselage with a saddle allowing a one-piece wing.

There are at least two other peanut scale plans for the Volksplane: an all-sheet design by Walt Mooney and a box-frame fuselage design by Stephen Hales.

This cookup is open to anyone who wants to join in. You don't have to fly with MAC, but if you build a Volksplane we'd like to see a picture and post it here. If you need plans, send us an email.